The present invention generally relates to the storage of body fluids. More specifically, the present invention relates to the separation of blood into its components and the storage of blood components.
It is, of course, known to use blood and other body fluids in a number of medical procedures. Blood transfusions are an example of such procedures. Blood is collected from a donor and can be transfused into a recipient.
Blood after being received from a donor is stored, typically, in flexible plastic containers until use. Blood can either be stored in a container as whole blood or broken down into its individual components, (i.e., plasma, buffy coat layer, and packed red cells). For example, it is known to separate whole blood either through a centrifuge process, or a process such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,350,585 and 4,608,178, into plasma, buffy coat, and packed red cells.
In a great majority of cases, blood is stored for a number of days and not immediately infused into a recipient. In most situations, the blood components are separately stored. For example, it is known to separately store and utilize the red blood cell component of whole blood.
In order to maintain the viability of red blood cells and other blood components, it is necessary to provide a storage solution to provide an energy source for the red blood cells.
Previous systems of manual blood collection consist of several blood packs connected with pieces of tubing and isolated, if necessary, by frangible parts. Most of the prior art pack configurations have a similar construction with a collection bag filled with anti-coagulant solution wherein, e.g., one pack is dedicated to the storage of red blood cell concentrates mixed with the preservative solution and one transfer pack is dedicated to the processing and storage of plasma.
In a known system, marketed by Baxter International under the trademarks OPTIPRESS.RTM. and OPTIPAC.RTM., whole blood is collected. The whole blood is then centrifuged to separate the blood into plasma, red blood cells, and a buffy coat. Plasma and red blood cells are separated by being removed from the blood pack through top and bottom tubes connected to peripheral transfer packs.
Although, the use of a triple pack configuration provides a system that can store blood components, a typical triple blood pack can present some issues. For example, the handling of a triple blood pack can be cumbersome due to the tubing becoming knotted and intertwined. Further, the pieces of tubing in the triple packs are labor intensive to manufacture and can create problems with bonding and kinking during sterilization. Furthermore, the packaging of triple packs with attached tubing can be problematic.
There therefore may be a need for an improved system for collecting and storing blood and its components.